Can good nutrition help us get pregnant and carry healthy babies to term? Can the foods we eat actually prevent our children from having crooked teeth and needing braces and eyeglasses?
I interviewed Kristen Michaelis of the Food Renegade blog to find out the answers to these questions and more.
Kristen has just launched a new online class called Beautiful Babies.
If you want to learn more about how food impacts fertility and pregnancy, click here to learn more about the class.
Kristen is offering a special discount. Click here to sign up by November 15th and you’ll save $50!
Oh, and I also wanted to mention that for every class sold, Kristen is giving $5 to the Weston A. Price Foundation and $5 to the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund — two very important non-profit organizations that I support with my dollars and with my heart.
1. How can good nutrition help women get pregnant?
The entire process from conception through birth (and even breastfeeding) is regulated by hormones. If your balance of hormones is off, even in a minor way, it can sometimes be a huge impediment to actually getting pregnant or carrying the baby to term.
Good nutrition is one of the primary keys to hormone regulation. It’s so simple and straightforward that it always amazes me that more women don’t turn to nutrition earlier in their fertility struggles.
2. How can good nutrition help women have an easier pregnancy and delivery?
Some elements of having an easier pregnancy are casually averted with better nutrition — like swelling and varicose veins. That’s just a matter of not having enough protein in the diet to support both your own cellular structural integrity AND building your baby.
Other things are much more nuanced, but still highly influenced by nutrition — like morning sickness and cravings. These are usually caused by a handful of nutrient-deficiencies, but usually have to do with your body’s nutrient stores prior to pregnancy.
Simply taking a supplement for that particular nutrient once you’re already pregnant and suffering is rarely helpful. For one thing, nutrients don’t work in isolation. In order to properly make use of the nutrients you’re consuming, you’ve got to have an entire network of other nutrients in balance, too.
Also, you’ve got to have good intestinal flora and gut health so that you can properly digest your foods. But perhaps the biggest obstacle to immediately reversing something like morning sickness is that there are nutrients that take a while to “re-stock” in your body.
Anybody who’s tried to improve their Vitamin D levels, for example, knows that it can sometimes take months to get those back up to adequate levels, even when you’ve got daily sun exposure going on and are faithfully supplementing your diet with enough fermented cod liver oil or other Vitamin D rich foods. And by the time months have passed, you may already be passed pregnancy and are instead nursing your little one. This is why it makes sense to follow the model of traditional cultures which dedicated at least 6 months to eating a highly nourishing fertility diet before couples tried to conceive. You’ve got to replenish your body’s nutrient stores!
3. What are the most important things to include in your diet if you are trying to conceive or are pregnant?
Oh, that’s a good question. One of the biggest nutrients missing from the modern woman’s diet is saturated fat. We’re all scared stiff of getting fat or getting heart disease, so we don’t eat enough fat. Your body needs saturated fat and cholesterol to build hormones.
Depriving your body of the basic building blocks of the hormones you’re trying to produce to conceive is simply unwise. Along with fat, however, you need a lot of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, K, & E. And you also need a good supply of vitamins B12, B6, and folate, in addition to magnesium and choline.
The best way to get these nutrients in foods is to:
1. Include animal fats or coconut oil in your cooking and only eat full-fat dairy from pastured animals
2. Eat eggs from pastured hens
3. Eat nutrient-rich seafood like oysters, clams, fish roe, and fatty wild-caught fish
4. Eat liver from pastured animals
5. Avoid nutrient-depleting things like caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and stress
4. Can we really prevent our children from needing to get braces and eyeglasses?
Absolutely! People assume that these things are genetic — and they are. But “genetic” doesn’t mean what we thought it meant. Researchers are now starting to understand the role of epigenetics, which allows us to determine which genes are expressed or not.
And epigenetics are very malleable, particularly when in the womb and in early childhood. If you eat the right foods during these developmental stages, you can literally turn the “good” genes on and the “bad” genes off!
5. What would you say the top 10 foods are for pregnant women or women trying to conceive?
Just 10? I’d go with (in no particular order):
Eggs from pastured hens
Liver from pastured animals
Oysters
Fish roe
Butter from pastured animals
Raw milk cheeses from pastured cows or goats
Yogurt or kefir from pastured cows or goats
Wild-caught fatty fish like salmon
Fermented foods to aid digestion
Coconut oil or animal fats to cook with
6. What would you say to a woman who has been trying to conceive for a long time, say months or even years? What are the most important changes she should make to her diet?
First, I’d say you’re not in this alone. Your fertility isn’t just on your shoulders. In 40% of fertility issues, the problem has to do with the male’s sperm being unhealthy or insufficient. His fertility can naturally be increased through diet as well, so you should both work together in making these changes and supporting each other.
The single most important change for the woman is to make sure you’re getting plenty of saturated fat. That’s not a cure-all; it’s just statistically the most likely cause for female infertility.
For the males, having the right balance of Omega 6:Omega 3 fatty acids in the diet is absolutely critical. (It’s important for the female as well, but studies have shown that this more than any other thing can affect the viability of sperm.)
In traditional food cultures, Omega-6:Omega-3 balance was at 4:1 or lower, with fewer than 4% of all their fat colories coming from polyunsaturated fats (found mostly in nuts, seeds, and the oils made from them).
7. Is it important for men to make changes to their diets as well?
Ha! I guess I jumped the gun in that last question. YES! See above. Males are just as responsible for infertility as women, and the same dietary improvements that help women will also inevitably help men.
8. What are some things women can do to make breastfeeding easier?
The first thing is to be informed. So many women take their breastfeeding advice from doctors (who admittedly know very little on the subject) or other women (who, more often than not, had difficulty nursing and assume everyone else will too).
What you want is advice from women who’ve been successful at nursing — who’ve nursed their kids well into (if not past) their second year. Those women know how to handle hurdles and challenges, and it’s their wisdom and support you want!
If none of your peers fit the bill, you could try to find a group of women locally through organizations such as La Leche League, or you could go online to communities like Kellymom.com and get to know women there.
Disclosure: cmp.ly/4 and cmp.ly/5
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome post! My daughter is 2, if she starts eating a tradition diet will it help her to not need braces or is it too late?
Yes! But hurry, you only have one year left. Start her on a double dose of fermented cod liver oil asap, as the first step. We began treating our adopted baby’s underbite at just a few weeks old, and now at 9 months, it is GONE!
She takes the FCLO, I just started her on that recently. I did breastfeed her for almost 2 years but I wasn’t eating that great. I just found out about the WAPF after I finished nursing her. She does like eggs and coconut milk and we give her very little sugar.
If you can cut the sugar fully, and make sure all the foods she is eating are actually nourishing, rather then displacing, then you will do well.
Does she have spacing between her teeth?
Do you have a source for raw milk?
If not, then find a way to procure marrow and knuckle bones for gelatinous broth.
My daughter is 13 months old but was a preemie (we adopted her as an infant). She has cod liver oil every day & has since she was maybe a few months old (adjusted age). She has a gap between her top two teeth & it worries me that she could have problem that requires surgery (I can’t remember the title but something to do with her frenum?) She has had donor breast milk since she came home with us back in December 2010. We have not transitioned her to raw milk yet b/c we suspect she is lactose intolerant and are not sure if we should give it to her yet. Any ideas? She is a great little eater & eats pastured beef and chicken and tons of veggies.
Heather, relax mama. Nearly always, even the lactose intolerant can safely and successfully consume raw milk, Pasteurized milk is an altogether different story, however, so approach dairy products like cheese and ice cream with caution since they are almost certainly produced from pasteurized milk and cream. Now about that gap between your child’s two front teeth…I am 48 years old, currently house 28 teeth in my mouth that do not contain a single filling, and I had such a gap myself as a child. It closed when my wisdom teeth grew in. By the way, three of the original 32 teeth are gone because I requested them to be removed to eliminate amalgam fillings, and two of those three were wisdom teeth! Please secure a second opinion on the “need for surgery” from a holistic dentist. With all due respect, it sounds like hogwash to me to recommend such a measure for a 13 month old child. You have given me a most welcome reminder of how grateful I am to no longer be in the United States.
Yes she does have space in between her teeth and a gap between the top two. I cant get any raw milk until May and I make stock from pastured beef, turkey and chicken. Sometimes duck too but just from the store. Oops just say that I spelled my name wrong, lol.
If she has an attached upper lip frenulum, that can cause a gap… but who told you it requires surgery? Typically children outgrow it by school age, but if not it is a simple snip your dentist can do. The only issue it can cause (aside from the gap) is if it is extreme it can trap food and cause upper teeth decay. With a healthy diet though, that will not be a concern.
If your daughter had a lower lip/tongue tie, that would NOT effect spacing, but would require surgery (before 6 months they are simple snips but after 6 months a blood supply grows thru there) If this were your issue you would not have been able to breastfeed. You would have known about it by now.
My daughter had a SEVERE tongue tie snipped at 2 weeks, and an upper lip tie we are are waiting to see if she will outgrow. Do not be concerned about a lip tie. Really. Just give her nutrient dense food and watch her upper front teeth. Do not let your dentist scare you.
Heather, that gap is a good thing. It means she will have room for her adult teeth more then likely.
I would suggest if and when you do the raw milk formula, that you leave out the extra lactose.
Raw milk tends to not cause any issues with lactose, but with our baby she did not tolerate it as an ingerdient, but the raw milk was never an issue.
Fantastic interview! I’m currently 35 weeks pregnant with my 4th and have followed a traditional diet the entire pregnancy. It’s amazing what a difference it makes when you are completely nourished. Can’t wait to meet my new little beautiful baby!
Words of wisdom! This information really needs to get out to as many people as possible.
I personally was able to reverse my diagnosis of severe infertility (a rare form of PCOS) with nutrition. It can be done! I now have three beautiful children, conceived naturally, all born at home and all who nursed for at least 2 years, my youngest being 16 months and still nursing for most of his caloric needs.
I would like to encourage those waiting to conceive – I had three children when I was in my early twenties, in spite of a PCOS diagnosis, but after that, we were unable to have more – I had stopped ovulating.
My youngest child is 17 1/2, and I recently found out I was pregnant. I have been making dietary and other changes to my health for the past five years including going GF, corn free, avoiding MSG and food dyes, coffee (It gives me exczema, I discovered), greatly reducing sugar intake, eliminating soda pop. In addition, I added raw pastured milk, some CLO, improved D levels, more water, more butter, real lard and greatly increased my intake of fats, which my body is responding very well to. Also, two years ago I began seeing a chiropractor regularly, who also uses KST to help me with emotional, personal and nutritional issues and lastly, I chose to have my tonsils removed, because I believed that they were interrupting my body’s ability to heal. I discussed this with my chiropractor, who was saddened by my decision, however we did discuss the role of scar tissue in preventing and altering the flow of energy through the body. One month after the tonsillectomy, I became pregnant. I believe that all the changes added together helped prepare my body – though not my mind – I was pretty surprised to find out I was pregnant! But I am not sure I could have attained this level of healing without the tonsillectomy. I am pretty anti-surgery – I avoided this surgery for at least ten years, but the constant bouts of strep and 105 degree fevers were frightening me. And I reasoned that I had a mechanical problem that needed a mechanical solution.
Indeed, one week after the tonsillectomy, I had a bad hemhorrhage, and lost a lot of blood, and had to have another surgery to repair it. But I went home the same afternoon, and developed a fever over the next several days. But I felt great – warm and pleasant, not sick and overwhelmed by bacteria. I think my body was undergoing a rapid healing all over, and a fever was a side effect.
I wasn’t planning, at the age of 43, to have more children, especially since I didn’t think I could, so I didn’t prepare my body, but already I see differences in this pregnancy from my others. I feel much better, I have more energy, am more vital. I am suffering only a little from morning sickness, and it helps when I take my whole food vitamins, unlike before, when my prescription prenatals made me feel worse. We are delighted with this little gift, and it will be fun to raise a child on real food.